Sam Levin here, continuing our live coverage. Here’s a new alert from the National Weather Service, which has noted that the storm surge is also expected to occur in inlets and rivers, in some cases in excess of 9ft.

NWS (@NWS)

Important note as #Florence continues to close in on the Carolina coastline, storm surge is not just an "ocean" problem tonight. Significant surge is expected to occur in the NC inlets and rivers, some areas in excess of 9 feet! pic.twitter.com/dz5OFR3M4B

Our freelancer Khushbu Shah is in Wilmington North Carolina where she found a number of folks ready to ride the storm out despite the mandatory evacuation order.

Even with an increasingly windy rainfall, neighbors Diane Brown and Bruce Pryor we’re sharing a drink and smoke on Pryor’s from porch a street away from the police HQ. Two pubs and the Waffle House are still open in historic downtown Wilmington. Cape Fear’s co-owner Lector Bennett says he’ll stay open to the dozen people outside drinking until he has to go home and feed his dog. Down the block, an Irish pub, Slainte, will have revelers out front all night.

Residents in Wilmington North Carolina riding out the storm at a pub. Photograph: Khushbu Shah for the Guardian

A steady stream of police have been circling these main roads, and a few people are still taking leisurely strolls.

Rain started coming down in Wilmington – hard for a while, now slow and steady – around 3pm.

Wilmington Police Public Affairs Officer says nearly 300 family members of police officers, along with their dogs, cats, and birds, are sheltering inside the police headquarters.

The river behind the Waffle House and bars is moving quicker now, flowing faster.

"Stay … on the lowest level of your home"

It might seem like counter-intuitive device during a storm when floodwaters are expected, but Fema calls this “critical advice” for those in the storm’s path noting that the combination of soggy, water-saturated ground and hurricane force winds can easily topple even massive trees. Staying in interior rooms on the ground floor reduce the risk that a tree falling on a home will cause injury or death.

NC Emergency Managem (@NCEmergency)

.@NC_Governor Cooper: Stay in a secure space, especially when the wind is high, and on the lowest level of your home (especially when you sleep), as trees can fall. #FlorenceNC#ncwx

This video from Weather Nation is a frightening demonstration of how powerful even a few inches of storm surge can be, as it knocks a wall in North Carolina off its frame.

WeatherNation (@WeatherNation)

Storm surge is the deadliest consequence of hurricanes and we're already seeing some effects from Florence. Watch as an interior wall is ripped off a frame from a beach house near the coastline as captured by our field correspondents. pic.twitter.com/nc5MyC9ckN

NHC says not to expect any weakening before landfall

It its most recent update the National Hurricane Center is advising that “little change in strength is expected before the eye of Florence reaches the coast”.

This means that in all likelihood, the costal Carolinas will receive the full brunt of category 2-force, 100mph winds.

The NHC suggests that storms with that wind power will typically lead to the following:

Well-constructed frame homes could sustain major roof and siding damage. Many shallowly rooted trees will be snapped or uprooted and block numerous roads. Near-total power loss is expected with outages that could last from several days to weeks.

According to NHC, Hurricane-force winds currently extend outward up to 80 miles from the center of Florence, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 195 miles.

By the numbers

Currently Florence is pushing out maximum sustained winds of 100mph and moving WNW at a sluggish 5mph – which could inflate rainfall totals and increase the number of areas that experience catastrophic flooding.

The storm is 100 miles ESE of Wilmington, North Carolina, and 155 miles east of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

John Kassell (@JPKassell)

Latest WPC guidance has expanded the coverage area for extreme rainfall/flooding as #Florence slows down. 15-30" rainfall amounts now likely to expand into parts of SC. A catastrophic event is unfolding. pic.twitter.com/PBUjOynpmY

A boarded up pub in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Photograph: Oliver Laughland for the Guardian

The winds here are not yet as strong as they are a few hundred miles north, outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. The latest forecast suggests that the strongest winds will arrive here early tomorrow morning, with rain and serious flooding forecast throughout the area.

I just got back from the coast where all the city’s fairground rides have been closed off. Although there were still a few revelers taking a stroll along the beach. Almost every petrol station here has shut down – bar one garage a few miles from our hotel where the line for gas and supplies snaked around the building.

The steady battering power of Florence’s winds are well illustrated in video footage from atop a decommissioned lighthouse off the North Carolina coast. An NBC periscope feed from the Frying Pan Tower showed the winds steadily picking up over the course of four hours, eventually shearing an American flag.

Florence approaches Carolinas as a category 2 storm

Hurricane Florence is continuing to push towards a landfall around the North Carolina/South Carolina border, and is beginning to lash the central Atlantic seaboard with damaging winds and storm surge. As of Thursday afternoon the storm was generating sustained winds of 105mph, as storm surge water has begun to rush into homes and streets along beachside communities.

Nearly 2 million coastal residents are now under mandatory evacuation orders, although it remains unclear how many have actually done so. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) have warned that failure to do so could be potentially deadly. Another 8 million people live in areas covered by hurricane and tropical storm warnings.

Preceded first by the storm surge and the winds, heavy rains were picking up as of late Thursday afternoon, the beginning of an onslaught that for some areas may not relent for days. Forecasters are predicting as much as 40in of rain in some localized areas.